Which size to buy, worked out from how much ghee real kitchens get through — including the case for buying less than you were about to.
Ghee consumption is remarkably steady once you know two things: how many people are eating, and whether ghee is a finishing fat or a cooking fat in that kitchen. Those two numbers give you a monthly figure you can shop against.
The rates below are the ones our own refill reminders run on. They started as sensible estimates and have been checked against how often customers actually reorder.
| How you cook | Per person, per day | What that looks like |
|---|---|---|
| Light | 4 ml | A spoon on dal or roti most days. Ghee is a finishing fat, not a cooking one. |
| Regular | 6 ml | Tempering, tadka, parathas a few times a week. The common Indian kitchen. |
| Heavy | 10 ml | Ghee is the main cooking fat. Sweets, deep tempering, daily parathas. |
A level teaspoon is about 5 ml, a tablespoon about 15 ml. So "regular" is a bit over a teaspoon per person per day, spread across everything you cook.
| Household | Light | Regular | Heavy |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 person | 120 ml | 180 ml | 300 ml |
| 2 people | 240 ml | 360 ml | 610 ml |
| 3 people | 360 ml | 550 ml | 910 ml |
| 4 people | 490 ml | 730 ml | 1,220 ml |
| 6 people | 730 ml | 1,090 ml | 1,820 ml |
Same arithmetic, turned around — for a household of 3 at regular use, which is the most common case.
| Size | 1–2 people | 3–4 people | 6 people |
|---|---|---|---|
| 250 ml | 3 weeks | 10 days | 7 days |
| 500 ml | 6 weeks | 3 weeks | 14 days |
| 1 litre | 2.7 months | 6 weeks | 4 weeks |
| 2.5 litre (dolchi) | 6.9 months | 3.4 months | 10 weeks |
| 5 litre (dolchi) | 13.7 months | 6.9 months | 4.6 months |
Buy four to six months of ghee, not twelve.
Opened ghee is at its best for about six months. It does not spoil the day after — it just stops being the thing you paid for. The aroma flattens, and the nutty cooked smell that is most of the pleasure of good ghee goes quiet.
So the honest sizing advice is: work out your monthly figure from the table above, multiply by five, and buy the nearest size at or below that. If that is a 1 litre jar rather than a 5 litre dolchi, buy the 1 litre jar. We would rather sell you the right size twice a year than the wrong size once.
Unopened jars are a different matter — those keep about twelve months from manufacture, so buying two and opening the second later is genuinely fine.
One thing worth understanding before you compare the sizes on price alone. Our 2.5 and 5 litre sizes come in a reusable food-grade steel dolchi, included in the price — the traditional vessel for storing ghee, and a genuinely good one: it keeps light out, it does not stain or absorb smell, and it stays useful in the kitchen for years after the ghee is finished.
So those sizes are not simply more ghee in a bigger container. If you want the lowest rupees-per-litre, the 1 litre glass jar is the one to look at. If you want the dolchi, the larger sizes are where it comes.
| Ghee | Size | Price | Per litre | Lasts a family of 3 |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Desi cow A2 | 500 ml | ₹699 | ₹1,398 | 4 weeks |
| Desi cow A2 | 1 litre | ₹1,299 | ₹1,299 · best value | 8 weeks |
| Desi cow A2 | 2.5 litre (dolchi) | ₹3,999 | ₹1,600 | 4.6 months |
| Desi cow A2 | 5 litre (dolchi) | ₹7,499 | ₹1,500 | 9.1 months |
| Gir cow A2 | 250 ml | ₹499 | ₹1,996 | 14 days |
| Gir cow A2 | 500 ml | ₹897 | ₹1,794 | 4 weeks |
| Gir cow A2 | 1 litre | ₹1,698 | ₹1,698 | 8 weeks |
| Gir cow A2 | 2.5 litre (dolchi) | ₹4,999 | ₹2,000 | 4.6 months |
| Gir cow A2 | 5 litre (dolchi) | ₹8,999 | ₹1,800 | 9.1 months |
Prices read live from the shop. "Lasts" assumes 3 people at regular use, 18 ml a day.
Turn on refill reminders in your account and we will work it out from what you actually order. The estimate starts from the table above and then corrects itself: once you have reordered twice, it uses your own interval instead of our average. Nothing is ever ordered for you — the reminder is an email with a one-tap link, and there is an unsubscribe in every one.
For a household of three to four cooking the way most Indian kitchens do, roughly 500 to 750 ml a month. That is about 6 ml per person per day. A household that uses ghee as its main cooking fat can easily double that; one that treats it as a finishing spoon on dal may use half.
For a family of four at regular use — about 24 ml a day between them — a 1 litre jar lasts roughly six weeks. For a couple at the same rate it is about three months. That is the arithmetic; your kitchen is the real answer.
Only if you will finish it while it is good. Opened ghee keeps about six months at its best. If a 5 litre dolchi would take you a year, you are not saving money, you are buying twice as much as you need and letting half of it get old. Work out your monthly use and buy four to six months of it.
Properly stored, it keeps far longer than most people fear — but aroma fades before anything goes wrong. An opened jar is at its best for about six months. It does not become unsafe the day after; it becomes ordinary, which for something you paid a premium for is its own kind of waste.
Not here, and it is worth understanding why. Our 2.5 and 5 litre sizes come in a steel dolchi that costs several hundred rupees on its own, so those sizes are dearer per litre than the 1 litre glass jar, not cheaper. If price per litre is what you care about, the 1 litre is the one to look at.